We all know about beers that are true to beer purity laws and centuries of brewing tradition, but what about the ones that aren't? From the beginning, brewers have experimented with odd combinations. Time and legislation have screened out the worst and the fatal, but there are still some nutty ones that remain.

First up, the oyster stout. Dark beer and oysters were cheap fare for London's commoners a couple of hundred years ago. They seemed to go well together, so the idea of combining them wasn't too far-fetched. I've had several, and none of them had much oyster flavor, thanks to the long boil during brewing and the flavorful roasted malts. There's just a bit of saltiness and a mineral nature from the shells.

Now, Wynkoop Brewing in Denver is taking it one step further with its Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout. The idea started as an April Fools' joke, but enough people fell for it and asked for samples that they decided to brew it. I'm looking forward to trying this bull testicle beer at the Great American Beer Festival next weekend.

If adding beef and shellfish to a beer works, how about chicken? An English drinks guide from 1899 lists a recipe for cock ale. It calls for adding a whole plucked rooster to 10 gallons of ale. The first step is to mash the bird in a stone mortar, put it in a bag with wine, raisins and spices and leave it to age. When the beer's done fermenting (a little more than a week later), combine the two and wait another 10 days before bottling.

I can only assume that the alcohol in the wine prevents anything truly revolting or deadly from growing on the raw chicken in that week of sitting at room temperature. Nonetheless, I have no idea what this might taste like, and have never heard from anyone with firsthand knowledge. I may just prefer to keep it that way.

By contrast, Rogue Ales' upcoming New Crustacean is vegetarian-friendly and will probably taste normal despite its special ingredient. Rogue values using locally sourced ingredients, so they attempted to find a usable wild yeast strain in its hop yard. Disappointed that the lab wasn't able to isolate anything suitable, they sent in some hairs from their head brewer's beard as a joke. Amazingly, the lab found a new strain that was perfect for making beer. The resulting brew is scheduled to ship in January.

The strangest homebrewed Reinheitsgebot-flouting creation I've been offered was a blue cheese porter. I don't care much for blue cheese so I was dubious, but since I was standing in my living room, “No thanks, I'm driving” wasn't a possible response. Lo and behold, it was actually good. The white part of the cheese added body and the blue part contributed a subtle spicy note that went well with the roasted malt flavors.

The creator of that is just about to go professional, so we'll see what happens. Maybe we'll see a Limburger lambic, but I hope not.

Markus Haas is the beer writer for the Express-News. Follow him on Twitter @saen_beerguy or email mhaas@express-news.net.